Ethan's POV
I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since the day it happened, the kiss. Katherine. Her lips on mine. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but somehow it happened, and now it was eating me alive.
I leaned back in my chair, running my hands through my hair, frustrated beyond words. I couldn’t get a clear thought out of my head. Ella. Khian. Katherine. The mess I’d made. Khian’s angry face flashed before my eyes, his fists clenched, the moment he shoved me against the wall after he saw us. 
“I trusted you, Ethan!” Khian had shouted. His voice echoed in my head, making it hard to breathe. “How could you do that? How could you hurt her like this?”
The way he looked at me, like I was the worst kind of person, it haunted me. But I didn’t mean for it to happen. 
I grabbed my phone for what must’ve been the hundredth time, checking if I’d missed any messages from Ella or anyone. Nothing. They hadn’t been at school since the party, and I had no idea what was going on. Every time I tried to reach out, there was silence. Complete silence. And it was driving me insane.
Why did I let this happen?
I stared out the window, the sky dark and cloudy, fitting the storm inside me. The guilt felt like a weight pressing down on my chest. Ella had always been so important to me. She was the reason I could breathe again after everything that happened in the past. 
We didn’t just move back here by accident. There was a reason, one I’d never told anyone, not even Ella. We’d left because of Dad. His business had started to fail, and instead of getting help, he gambled it all away. When the debts piled up, he vanished. Just…disappeared, leaving Mom, Katherine, and me behind to deal with everything.
I still remember the day we had to pack up and leave. I was only a kid, and it was the last time I saw Ella before we moved. I promised I’d come back for her one day. But I didn’t know it’d take years, and when we finally did return, everything felt different.
But now, I’d screwed it all up. I thought I could get back to the life we had, but things had changed, Ella had changed, I had changed. And Katherine… God, why did she have to kiss me?
It was at that stupid event. I hadn’t even been thinking. She’d pulled me aside, we’d talked about how hard things had been after Dad left, how messed up we felt, and then… it just happened. One second we were talking, and the next, her lips were on mine. I didn’t push her away fast enough. I didn’t even process it before Khian walked in and saw us.
And the worst part? I couldn’t even explain it to him or Ella. It wasn’t like I wanted it. Katherine and I were just… stuck in the past, haunted by the same ghosts, but I never wanted it to go that far. Now, I had no idea how to fix it.
I stood up and paced around the room, trying to clear my head, but all I could think about was how I had hurt Ella. She probably hated me now, and I wouldn’t blame her. I’d hate me too. I’d promised to be there for her, and I’d let her down.
The silence from her was unbearable. I couldn’t stop thinking about where she was, why she wasn’t in school. What if something had happened to her? What if she was hurt, and I didn’t even know?
My phone buzzed in my hand, pulling me from my thoughts. I glanced down, half hoping it was Ella, but it wasn’t. It was Katherine.
I hesitated, not wanting to answer, but I couldn’t leave things unfinished. I swiped to answer and brought the phone to my ear. “What do you want, Katherine?”
Her voice came through, shaky and uncertain. “Ethan, I didn’t mean for it to go this far. I—”
“Katherine, just stop,” I cut her off, not in the mood for more explanations. “You kissed me, okay? You know how much I care about Ella, and you still did it. Why?”
There was silence on the other end before she finally spoke. “I don’t know… I just— I thought maybe it will make things better. I’m sorry, Ethan. I really am.”
I closed my eyes, feeling the frustration rising again. “You’ve made things worse, Katherine. I don’t even know if I can fix this. Khian already hates me, and Ella… I don’t know what she’s thinking.”
“I didn’t mean to ruin things,” she said softly. “I was just…lost.”
“I’m lost too,” I muttered under my breath.
I ended the call before she could say anything else and threw the phone on my bed. It was all too much. Katherine was part of the reason my family had fallen apart, and now she was messing things up again.
I thought coming back to this town would bring some kind of peace, but instead, it was dragging me into a whirlwind of confusion. I didn’t know where I stood anymore, with my family, with Ella, with Khian.
I wanted to make things right, but every time I tried, it felt like I was sinking deeper into a mess I couldn’t escape.
Ella. Please, just let me know you’re okay.
I collapsed onto my bed, staring at the ceiling, wishing I could go back to the day before everything fell apart. Before the kiss. Before the past caught up to me. But there was no going back now, and I wasn’t sure how to move forward.
----
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. Sitting here wasn’t going to solve anything. I needed to see her. I needed to explain, to apologize, to make things right, even if it was too late. I couldn’t just keep hiding from the mess I made. 
I grabbed my keys and headed out the door, determination driving me forward. I knew I might face Khian’s anger, maybe even worse, but I was willing to risk it. Ella meant too much to me to just stay silent.
---
When I arrived at her house, it was quiet, almost too quiet. I parked down the street and walked towards the front door, every step heavier than the last. My hand shook slightly as I reached for the doorbell. I hadn’t rehearsed what I was going to say, and now I regretted not planning this out better.
I rang the bell and waited, heart pounding in my chest. A minute passed. Then another. 
Finally, the door creaked open, and to my surprise, it wasn’t Ella. It was her mom.
“Oh, Ethan…” Mrs. Evince’s voice was calm but laced with shock. Her eyes, however, were full of disappointment.
“Hi, Mrs. Evince,” I managed, my voice weak. “I… I came to check on Ella. Is she home?”
Before she could respond, Ella’s dad appeared behind her. He was as shocked as his wife, but his expression quickly darkened when he saw me.
I opened my mouth to explain, but my words got caught when another figure came into view.
Khian.
His face hardened the second he saw me standing there. The same fury I saw in him at school was back, maybe even worse. His fists clenched at his sides, and he pushed past his parents to stand right in front of me.
“What the hell are you doing here, Ethan?” Khian’s voice was low, full of venom.
“I—I came to see Ella,” I stammered, trying to find the right words. “I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
“You think you can just show up here?” Khian snapped, his eyes narrowing. “After what you did? After you hurt her?”
I flinched at his words, guilt washing over me. “Khian, I didn’t mean to hurt her. I swear, it wasn’t what it looked like.”
Before I could respond, Khian’s mom stepped forward, her hand gently resting on his arm. “Khian, calm down.”
But his eyes narrowed, fury radiating from him. “After everything you’ve done? Are you serious right now?”
“I didn’t mean for any of it to happen,” I blurted out, desperate to explain myself. “It was a mistake, Khian. I swear.”
Khian’s face twisted with anger, and he stepped closer, practically in my face now. “A mistake? You kissed Katherine, Ethan! You hurt my sister. You think saying it was a ‘mistake’ changes anything?”
I took a step back, my throat tight. “I didn’t mean to—”
“I don’t care what you meant to do,” Khian snapped, cutting me off. “You don’t get to hurt Ella and then just waltz back here like everything’s fine. She doesn’t need you messing with her life.”
Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned to see Lily and Sophie rushing over, both looking alarmed. They must’ve heard the yelling from inside the house. Sophie’s face was pale, and Lily’s eyes darted between Khian and me, clearly sensing the tension.
“Khian, stop,” Lily said quickly, stepping between us before things could escalate any further. “You’re going to make a scene. Ella can’t handle this.”
Sophie, always the one to lighten the mood, forced a smile, though it was strained. “Yeah, let’s not do this out here, okay? Ella doesn’t need to see this, and we don’t want to make her worry.”
Khian’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t move, his eyes still locked on me like he was ready to punch me again. I couldn’t blame him, honestly. If I were in his shoes, I’d hate me too. But the last thing I wanted was for Ella to get hurt even more.
Lily glanced at me, then back at Khian. “Let’s just get back inside. We can talk about this later.”
Khian didn’t budge at first, but then, as if something clicked in his mind, he slowly backed off. He wasn’t doing it for me, I knew that much. He was doing it for Ella.
Just as things seemed to be calming down, we heard a soft voice from inside the house.
“Who’s at the door?”
My heart sank. It was Ella. Gosh I miss that voice of her.
Before any of us could react, Ella appeared in the hallway, her eyes searching for an answer. When she saw me standing there, her face changed, shock, confusion, and maybe even a little bit of hurt. It was like a knife twisting in my chest.
“Ethan?” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Sophie immediately jumped into action, stepping in front of Ella with a bright smile plastered on her face. “Oh, Ella, it’s nothing important! Just… uh, some old school thing. Don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah!” Lily added, her voice a little too high-pitched. “It’s just a mix-up with, uh, the mail or something. We’ll handle it!”
Ella looked between the two of them, clearly not buying it. “Why is Ethan here?”
Khian tensed up again, but before he could say anything, I took a step forward. “Ella, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Ella’s eyes softened slightly, but there was still that layer of hurt beneath it all. “I’m fine, Ethan.”
The weight of her words hit me harder than I expected. Fine. Just fine. No anger, no sadness, just that hollow, empty word.
Before I could say anything else, Khian stepped between us, his expression hard. “You’ve said enough, Ethan. Leave.”
I nodded, knowing I had no place here anymore. But as I turned to leave, I glanced back at Ella one last time, hoping she could see how much I regretted everything.
I wanted to tell her everything, but I knew this wasn’t the time. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
With a heavy heart, I walked away, feeling the weight of everything I’d lost pressing down on me with every step.
I took a last look at their house before returning to my car.